Space: Architecture: South Asia

(1,627 words)

This entry outlines the nature of gendered space in South Asian cities to illustrate the way architecture deals with gender in design, and Muslim women's use of space.

Architecture and city planning in South Asia have rich heritages that hark back to the Indus Valley civilization of the fourth millennium B.C.E. Since then, treatises and tradition have influenced the production of the built environment. Race, ethnicity, class, and gender have also negotiated people's access to space in South Asia. A pre-existing notion of separate realms for men and women gu…